Nature’s ‘lighthouse’ of the South Seas

Press, 17 December 1985, Page 22

Nature’s ‘lighthouse’ of the South Seas

j By

SUSAN KUROSAWA

The scene was pure Jules Verne or, to update the reference, sheer Steven Spielberg. No Tinsel Town tricks involved: just rugged, primeval landscape, mushroom clouds of smoke and volcanic ash, and jagged rocks being juggled from the bowels of the ancient volcano. We were standing at the crater of Yasur volcano on the island of Tanna in the Vanuatu group. Captain James Cook referred to Yasur as “the great lighthouse of the South Seas” and it is one of the most accessible volcanoes to be found anywhere; a road winds from the desolate base to a flat spot some 20 minutes climb away from the summit. Depending on wind direction, the ash can blow all over you during the ascent. A scarf, sunglasses and some form of head protection are a must otherwise you’ll catch specks in your eyes and end up, as I did, with layers of black grit in your hair. Yasur erupts almost constantly and it’s a particularly awesome spectacle at night with the hurtling rocks and lava presenting a startling chiaroscuro against the black sky. We spent a couple of hours at the volcano during a day tour of Tanna. After the trudge down from the crater,

we ate sticky-sweet mangoes and sugar bananas, drank lemon juice from coconut shell cups, and availed ourselves of the outdoor vice-regal toilet especially installed last year for the visit of Sir Ninian Stephens. Apparently the locals were a mite put out that the Governor-General didn’t have occasion to use it!

Tanna is a short flight by .Air Melanesiae from Vila on the main island of Efate and is a very worthwhile inclusion in a holiday to Vanuatu. The sluggish pace, Tarzanic scenery, deserted beaches and lively markets overflowing with plump fruit all combine to present the stuff of the best South Pacific fantasies.

Tour Vanuatu operates day or overnight tours; mini-buses are used for ground transport and the • itinerary, such as it is, is delightfully disorganised and punctuated with unscheduled stops for gossiping, picking mangoes, collecting the driver’s children from school, and helping change a tyre on a friend’s truck. A travelling companion and I arrived on market day arid, while our driver disappeared for an hour to sort

out the complexities of tour vouchers and picnic baskets, we explored the fruit stalls set up in haphazard fashion under a huge banyan tree. We thought we were doing pretty well when we negotiated the equivalent of 20 cents for two big sugar bananas. We didn’t realise we’d bought the entire branch of at least 40 pieces of fruit until the grinning saleswomen deposited our cargo into the front seat of the mini-bus. Our serendipity tour included the White Grass plain where 400 or so wild horses were thundering across the windswept savannah, and the old colonial administration centre of Isangel with its trim white buildings garlanded with riotously coloured tropical flowers.

There was talk of seeing a kava ceremony but as Tanna is one of the last places in the region to cling to the superstition of not allowing women to attend the festivities, we repaired instead to the Tanna Beach Resort for cocktails under the coconut palms. The resort is run by an Australian couple, Ray and Janina Saunders, and it’s sublime, get-away-from-it-all territory. There are a dozen self-contained bungalows virtually cascading into tranquil Ebul Bay, ; and . a pleasant,

open-sided dining-cum-bar area. Grilled lobster tails, local delicacies, French wine and a few special concoctions such as the aptly named Yasur Eruption (double gin, orange fizz, Grenadine and whipped cream) and reality disappears as swiftly as the Fanta-orange sun being silently vacuumed into the glossy sea. Plans are in the pipeline for a pool, refurbishing of rooms and a general upgrading. Tanna Beach Resort is not the least bit sophisticated: it’s clean, comfortable and casual and, as such, blends perfectly with the natural environment of Tanna. Tanna is still st’eeped in timehonoured traditions and its people are fiercely independent. Tour Vanuatu can arrange visits to the little cargo cult villages speckled through the island; you may run across chief Tom Numake who has ventured into Western capitalism with his White Grass Bungalows, a modern resort complex located not far from the airport. Go to Tanna for its unaffected, unhurried atmosphere and lack of contrived entertainment or diversions. For goodness sake, go and help the locals eat some of those sugar bananas. And, most importantly, go right now before the word gets around.